Media, Telecom & Entertainment

imec.istart and its partners launch a specific track on Media, Telecom & Entertainment. In a partnership between imec, Barco, Mediahuis, Medialaan, Telenet, VRT Sandbox and MediaNet Vlaanderen, this consortium with extensive experience and networks in this market wishes to support the creation of new solutions and start-ups in these industries.

The media, telecom and entertainment industries are under constant change. Digitization causes significant changes in how we consume news, play games, watch programs or behave on the new, mobile environment. The consortium wishes to support and spur the development of innovative solutions that can help shaping the media, telecom and entertainment products and services of the future.

During a period of 6 up to maximum 18 months, the Media, Telecom & Entertainment partners provides financial means (max. 50kEUR on top of the imec.istart offering, which also contains 50 kEUR) as well as coaching and training, depending on the specific needs (specialized coaches & mentors, training focusing on certain themes, …).

The support provided by Media, Telecom & Entertainment partners comes on top of the support provided by the imec.istart program. Both organizations (imec and Media, Telecom & Entertainment) take an independent decision. If you apply for the Media, Telecom & Entertainment specific track, this automatically means you also apply for the imec.istart program and you agree with its conditions.

Even though a minimal support towards further technology development can be given as well, the main focus lies on business development (developing, validating and implementing a business plan, clarifying the intellectual property situation, market analysis, customer contacts through fairs, marketing and sales activities …).

“The final purpose is to help develop a business idea up to the point where it is ready to attract financial support in the market, and to continue developing independently.”

In order to be eligible, some form of proof-of-concept or prototype of the core product/technology is a necessity. At submission, your start-up does not need to be established yet (if you’re selected, we expect you to establish a kind of legal entity however).

The imec.istart manual includes all details on the program, the conditions that apply (e.g. for the imec.istart support, imec received 6% of the equity in your start-ups and an additional 3% for Media, Telecom & Entertainment partners), the support offered by imec.istart and the different Media, Telecom & Entertainment partners and e.g. the evaluation criteria.

The imec.istart program was named the world’s number 4 in the 2015 UBI Global’s ranking of ‘Top University Business Accelerators’.